Jack Moser '94: A different sort of lawyer
Jack Moser The 1994 graduate Jack Moser '94 operates a general practice law firm in Columbus, Ohio. Photo courtesy of Jack Moser
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“The idea is to put myself out of business,” he says. Well, that is, at least as an attorney who represents people who have been charged with drunk driving offenses. Moser has started an awareness campaign that has rippled through the community, forcing people to pay attention.
“I do not want to be a drunk driver’s attorney,” says Moser. “These efforts are all tied into awareness campaigns.”
That is just one thing that sets Moser apart in Columbus from his fellow lawyers. He’s embraced the world of social media, Facebook being the biggest slice of this pie, and he is featured on two radio programs in the area.
But being different is the usual for Moser. Just take his William and Mary experience.
“I had done a four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, and I was stationed at Langley Air Force Base,” says Moser. “I had taken night courses at Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) and rolled the dice. It felt like a Hail Mary long shot for me to get into William and Mary.”
“Once I got here, it was very different experience,” says Moser. “At TNCC the classes had a lot of older people with a lot of experience. The classes at TNCC were full of folks from the Newport News Shipyard, nurses in training, teachers trying to pick up different areas of expertise. At William and Mary, I was only 22 at the time, but I felt like a granddad!”
After graduating from the College, Moser landed a paid internship in Washington, D.C., with a government agency which was attempting to guide the new economic system of the former Soviet Union. Moser and his colleagues connected American companies that wanted to do business in Russia and former Soviet republics with local people who had some knowledge or connection with private industry.
“Talk about the wild, wild west — that’s what it was,” says Moser. “McDonald’s, for example, if they wanted to open up a shop over there, they’d have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars teaching their employees how to seed tomatoes, peel potatoes, build the facilities to convert their raw materials into the food that they’ll need. They built the whole infrastructure, and they sold all of it to private industry, because they were only interested in selling hamburgers. That was a real test to see if that’s what I wanted to do next. So, I decided that I really wanted to go to law school.”
Moser moved to Ohio and earned his law degree at Capital University Law School in Columbus. Location was a big decision for him when he decided where to pursue his J.D.
“One of the fun things that I did do at College was I took two semesters of windsailing, and that was one of the reasons I went to law school in Columbus,” laughs Moser. “If I had gone to Ft. Lauderdale or someplace in Florida I wouldn’t have graduated law school!”
He started his practice and has been heavily involved with drunk driving awareness through his Web presence, public appearances and relationships with organizations such as MADD. But most people in the Columbus area would know him from his radio programs.
“The idea is that in a sense it is a form of alternative advertising,” says Moser. “Listeners hear my name and phone number. But at the same time, we’re trying to figure out the medium and give people good information — but it’s not legal advice. I call it legal talk, because I have to be very careful under the ethics we work under — someone could take what I say and act on it, and I would be in a world of hurt.”
Moser has even branched out his advertising efforts to a local NHRA drag racing venue, and has plans on even more innovative ways of spreading awareness of his campaign and his business. But one thing remains constant, and that is his pride and support of William and Mary.
“Anytime the football team is anywhere close to us, I make sure to get out there,” says Moser. “I went to the Marshall game in 2005, and I took my kids down to Indiana to see the Tribe play. I can’t help but to go support the team.”
As well as showing up to those games out in the Midwest, Moser returns to Williamsburg every summer to visit friends on his way to Cape Hatteras to indulge in windsailing with his children.
